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> istern Canada >* 



and 



The People There-ln 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



— BY 



EDGAR DUPUYS 






<^ LITERARY BUREAU 


.- ^^ 


NEW -YORK, CHICAGO. 


SAN FRANCISCO 



191J 



Eastern Canada 

«^ and «^ 

The People There-In 

IV/TH ILLUSTRATIONS 



By EDGAR DUPUYS 

Author of " Calif ornians and Mormons," — "Republicanism 

in France," — "The Paris Commune," — 

"The French and the Germans," — " The Stage,"— 

" Philological and Historical Chart," etc. 




-^^ LITERARY BUREAU : ^^- 
NEW -YORK, CHICAQO, SAN FRANCISCO 

1972 



i 
I 






COPYRIGHT 1912 

AI^I, RIGHTS RESERVED. 



CONTENTS 

PART FIRST 

Eastern Provinces of English Speech 
Chapter I 

Three fellow travelers. — Toronto at a glance. — Men and 
women. — A grave problem. 

Chapter II 

New Brunswick. — Picturesque St. John. — Wonderful 
Falls. — Inhabitants. — Pedigrees. — What is needed. — 
Brighter prospects. 

Chapter III 

Nova Scotia. ™ I^and of Evangeline. — Halifax. — The 
people. — Family trees. — Noted men. 



PART SECOND 

The Province of Quebec 

Chapter I 

Historic facts. — Victory of the conquered. — Fear the 
French language. — Inhabitants and habitants. — Religious 
extremists. — The good priests. — A New Year's night. 

Chapter II 

French as spoken in Quebec. — Literature and art. — Race 
and religion in politics. 



PART THIRD 

Future of Canada and the French Race 

Chapter I 

A dream that may not materialize as dreamed. — Indepen- 
dence and annexation. 

Chapter II 
The material side of Quebec— Roads and railways. 
Chapter III 

Important statistics. —A Republic and other dreams. — 
Tricolor and the church. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Among the Thousand Islands. 

George Street — Residential Section — Toronto. 

Sir John A. Macdonald. 

View of Ottawa. 

View of St. John, N. B. 

Basil's blacksmith shop at Grand Pre, N. S. 

View of Halifax, N. S. 

View of Quebec. 

Wolfe and Montcalm Monument. 

House of a habitant of the better class. 

House of the average habitant. 

Harvesting time . 

Boys and girls on Sunday. 

Praying on the highway. 

Ruins of a chateau. 

Sir Wilfrid Ivaurier. 

Habitants at a political meeting. 

Right Honorable Robert L. Borden. 

Sir Lomer Gouin, 

Sectional view of Montreal. 

Sir Rodolphe Forget. 

Typical French Canadian Family in rural Quebec. 

A French Canadian centenarian. 

F'rench Canadian guide in Northern Quebec. 

Comparative numerical standing of the French and 
British Races in Kastern Canada. 

6 



PREFACE 

fTTHIS BOOK is the outcome of a 
nearly two years' tour of observation 
through the Eastern Provinces of the 
Dominion of Canada. The West is the 
land of the great future we are told ; possi- 
bly, but the East is the land of the historic 
past and, I venture to say, of the great 
future as well. At any rate, the Eastern 
Provinces, the cradle of Canada and the 
architect of the Confederation are of more 
absorbing interests to the students of eco- 
nomics than the western prairies. I found 
Eastern Canada an exceptionally rich field 
for the study of men and things. Obvi- 
ously I made the best of opportunities in 
my daily contact with people of every 
condition in urban and rural life. I found 
many things worthy of praise and other 
things deserving censure. The salient cha- 
racteristics of a people are like a picture, 

7 



an intermingling of light and shade. I will 
add in conclusion, that, being in the habit 
of calling a spade a spade, no attempts at 
varnishing will be seen in either praise or 
censure. e. d. 

Nbw-York, 

March, 191 2. 



8 



Part First 



Eastern Provinces of English Speech 



Chapter I 

ThKe fellow travelers. — Toronto at a glance. — Men 
and women. — A grave problem. 

IT IS generally well known that good 
Americans with a surplias cash at the 
bank take their annual flight to some 
quarters of the Globe, when the thermo- 
meter begins its flirtations with the eighties. 
A quarter of a million or so steer their way 
across the deep to Europe ; while a smaller 
army turns its face northward and invades 
the Canadian Dominion. In the spring of 
1910, I was a soldier of the advanced guard 
in the smaller army. These peaceful in- 
vaders of Canada cross the frontiers at 
various points without the least regard to 
strategy. 

I selected the water route leading through 
the wondrous labyrinth of the Thousand 
Islands. It was in the month of June, the 
month of romance and of weddings, the 

11 



month tliat smells of flowers, of fresh fol- 
iage, of everything green everywhere in 
the fields, and sends a thrill of new life^ 
through heart and soul. 

I left LewistoTi, N. Y., for Toronto in a- 
boat crowded with tourists^ mostly Amer- 
icans in quest of new worlds to coBquen 
Presently a middle-aged man of good ad- 
dress, seemingly in the full enjoyment of 
health and energy, came to me and exteBd- 
ing his hand, said : 

"Hello, do you remember me as your 
traveling companion from Berlin to Moscow 
in the summer of 1891 ? " 

I did remember him, an intelligent,, 
always cheerful commercial traveler for a 
New- York firm, and I expressed my plea- 
sure at meeting him again. 

'' After material for a new book ? '^ 

'' Precisely what I am doing. '^ 

" Writing up the Canucks ? Been to the 
country before ? " 

" I have not, I am ashamed to say. Have 
you ? " 

'' Yes, once, from Halifax to Vancouver, 

12 



You'll find good stuff for a book. Interest- 
ing people out there. Behind the times 
thafs all. Too much fanaticism in Ontario 
and too many priests in Quehoc. Race 
prejudices everywhere. Seem to be waking 
lip though. Write them up and down. 
Want to know more of Canada and Cana- 
dians iii the States. By the way, you smoke 
I know, here is a good cigar." 

And here my ubiquitous friend left to 
look after his baggage. 

My next fellow traveler, who volunteered 
to teach me Canadian history, showed up 
in a rather unexpected manner, after leaving 
Kingston for Montreal, He was a Canadian 
of English stock, above medium height, 
stoutly built, clean shaved and had the 
florid complexion of a good liver. Evid- 
ently a prosperous man of alfairs, a poli- 
tician, or both. 

'^ Pardon me," he said with a chuckle 
as he was thrown against me by a lurch 
of the boat entering the first rapid. '^ I find 
it always difficult to keep m}^ feet here," 
he added, adjusting his hat. 

13 



I told him that being a good sailor I 
always manage to keep my sea legs on. 

We seated ourselves near the railing and 
while admiidng the ever-changing wonder- 
ful panorama all about us, our conversation 
naturally drifted to Canada, He began 
singing the praise of his country^ like a 
good, patriotic Canadian that he was. 

'' We think we have, or will have the 
greatest country in the world, I know 
that you people in the States look down 
upon us as a sort of negligible quantity^ 
a people afflicted with chronic stagnation. 
You are very much in error. In the 
first place^ Canada is larger than your 
country, nearly as large as Europe and 
eighteen times the size of France and its 
natural wealth is incalculable. And, as to 
stagnation, let us look at some of the things 
we have done during the last decade. Our 
immigration foots up nearly two millions. 
A large number of these immigrants crossed 
the line to the South, it is true, but 500,000 
of your sturd}^ farmer came to us. Mont- 
real, Hamilton and Winnipeg have doubled 

14 




Among the Thousand Islands. 



and Vancouver has tripled in population. 
Toronto gives an increase of 170,000, while 
our minor cities show a large increase also. 
Our total trade for 1911 will come up to 
seven hundred millions, which is double 
the amount for 1901. You can hardly 
call this stagnation, can you ? Yes, sir, 
the twentieth century is ours, to quote the 
language of Laurier. Our aim is the up- 
building of a united nation with one ever- 
living aspiration — greatness, and one lan- 
guage — the english language. 

" Pardon me, but what will the French 
Canadians say to that one language idea?" 
I interrupted laughingly. 

'^ French Canadians have done and are 
doing much in upbuilding the country, 
but their language which is only a patois, 
or a corrupt French at best, is dying out. 
It will no longer be spoken in two or three 
decades, except perhaps in the back woods 
of Quebec." 

Here an unexpected interruption came 
in from an intelligent looking gentleman 
seated at my elbow. 

17 



" Piirdon me," he said, with a slight 
French accent, '' for intruding, but I beg 
to take issue with you on the language 
question. The French language of Quebec 
is neither corrupt nor a patois, and shows 
no signs of dying out. It is very much 
alive and increasing with marvelous strides, 
not only in Quebec, but in your own 
Province of Ontario and in the Maritime 
Provinces also. What you English Cana- 
dians don't know about Quebec would fill 
a very large book." 

'' Possibly, possibly," grunted the Cana- 
dian from Toronto, with a nervous twist 
at his watch chain and a far away look at 
nothing. 

And here the brief duel of words came 
to an abrupt end. 

Ontario comes in first as the most popu- 
lous and the richest province of the Domi- 
nion. Toronto, by far the most important 
city in that province, deserves the name 
of Queen City. It certainly is one of the 
most beautiful and interesting cities in 
North America. More than one hundred 

18 



years younger than Quebec, its population 
is nearly five times that of the ancient 
Capital of Canada, and its commercial 
importance in the Dominion gives prece- 
dence to Montreal only. The well paved 
streets, always kept clean, are lined in the 
ever busy business quarters, with modern 
buildings of imposing proportions. Every- 
thing here seems like an American city 
such as Buffalo or Cleveland. 

The residential quarters, however, are 
thoroughly English in look as well as in 
fact. Costly homes of pleasing architecture 
loom up here and there and everywhere, 
in the midst of spacious grounds, ancient 
trees, lawns of immaculate green and 
flowers galore. The famous English fences 
or walls are there also. Everything seen 
here spells comfort and luxury and breathes 
an air of dignified respectability. Add 
pretty parks always found at the right pla- 
ces, magnificent public buildings, churches 
and schools by the scores, a commodious har- 
bor alive with coming and departing crafts, 
and you will have Toronto at a glance. 

19 



The 376,000 inhabitants found here are 
fine specimens of a hardy race, mostly of 
English stock. The men are stalwart and 
sinewy and quite alert with legs and brains. 
They dress with taste and are not wanting 
in elegance. They have not the good 
manners of the people in the same condi- 
tion of life in England. Their dignity is 
of the cold and awkward sort that thaws 
out only at the sight of a good bargain. 
The shopkeeper is in evidence everytime. 
However, while lacking in social niceties, 
they are manly men, which is a great 
deal ; men of integrity and moral worth. 
They imitate the ubiquitous Yankees in 
many things, even down to their outra- 
geously bad manners, but as yet, it is 
only just to say, they have not come 
up to them on that score. The anomaly 
of it all is that they hate us at heart 
and call us names — a small boy shaking 
his fist at a passing express train. Their 
opinion of their countrymen of Quebec 
is not commendable. '' D...., priest-rid- 
den, bigoted Frenchmen" they say — a 

20 




(Tccro^e Street — Resideutial section— Toronto. 



lump of shining coal calling the kettle 
black. 

That a beautiful city should have beau- 
tiful women seems a logical inference. To- 
ronto has them by the scores, nay by the 
hundreds. These ^T-oung women are of good 
height, slight yet robust and radiant with 
health. The complexion vies in delicacy 
of tint with the fresh rose leaf, and the 
smile of expectation of the well carved 
lips shows a row of even teeth, like the 
white seeds of an unripe apple. The eye 
is blue, large and well opened, and the 
mass of golden hair, floating over head, 
cheek and neck, seems a butterfly quivering 
over the marble brows of Venus. La belle 
Toronden^ie of the haul nionde is well 
educated, a good reader^ an excellent mu- 
sician and a charming conversationalist, 
She wields the brush and the crayon with 
equal skill and her French accent is of the 
right sort. She has ready wit and some- 
thing of the inimitable dash of the New- 
York Girl. There are other things not 
all coiileiir de rose that might be said of 

23 



la belle Torontienne of a lower social stra- 
tum. But why go into details? An ill- 
bred and ill-mannered woman is never at 
best a pleasant subject to deal with. 

Toronto is the radiating centre of Tory- 
ism, religious intolerance and racial preju- 
dices. Its influence for good or evil is 
seen everywhere in the provinces of English 
speech. But the darkest spot in the civic 
atmosphere of the Queen City is the Sun- 
day law. On Sunday the ghost of puri- 
tanism, long dead in the greater part of 
our countr}^, hovers in the form of an 
enormous bat over the city, and from 
its immense and slimy wings made darker 
with a thick coating of fanaticism and hy- 
pocrisy, there falls a deep and forboding 
shadow. This Sunday Law, to say nothing 
of its ridiculous side, hurts the prestige of 
Toronto and lowers its influence abroad. 

However, foreign tourists are inclined 
to forget the inconveniences met with on 
Sunday in Toronto, after two or three days 
touring in the rural districts of Ontario. 
It is a pleasure to see miles after miles 

24 



of a delightful country, decked here and 
there with pretty towns and villages. The 
broad and well cultivated farms with blos- 
soming orchards and well built houses and 
barns speak loud of comfort and abun- 
dance. At intervals a stock farm appears 
with its little army of horses and cattle, 
bounding over the green at the sight of 
our auto. 

While enjoying these peaceful panorama 
of rural life, I could' not help thinking 
of the deplorable fact that the cities of 
Ontario are increasing in population to the 
detriment of the farms. 

The last census shows that out of 85 
counties in this province, 46 have steadily 
decreased in population since 1901, and 
those counties are mostly given to agri- 
cultural poursuits. The increase in popu- 
lation in Ontario in the last decade foots 
up 340,000. The cities of 4000 and above 
are credited with an increase of 325,000, 
leaving an increase of 15,000 only for the 
rest of the province. Three agricultural 
counties alone, namely : Grey, Bruce and 

25 



Huron show a decrease of 29,221. This 
deplorable desertion from the farm to the 
city is not confined to Ontario, but it is 
here on a much larger scale than anywhere 
else in the Dominion. 

Ontario, it seems to me, might find it 
more profitable to give the time and energy 
spent in the enactment of laws prohibiting 
the sale of ice cream on Sunday, in trying 
with all the power in command to check 
the alarming decrease of her rural popu- 
lation, 

I will add further that the great Pro- 
vince could derive considerable benefit 
from a glance now and then at the memo- 
rable words of the most illustrious Canadian 
of English speech, Sir John A. Macdonald : 
'• No more conquerors and conquered ; nO' 
Kkore inferior race." But, here we inquisi- 
tive Yankees would like to know which 
happens to be the inferior race in this case ; 
the uncouth and ridiculously pompous 
John Bull of Ontario, or the seventeenth 
century Johnny Grapeau of Quebec, or a 
mixture of both? 

26 




Sir John A. Macdonald. 



OTTAWA 

Ottawa, the political capital of Canada^ 
is a city in the making, but judging from 
what has already been done, it promises 
to be the gem of the Dominion. The site 
is admirable. The business and residential 
thoroughfares with the Government build- 
ings as a dominating centre present a 
marvelous coup d^oeil. The house of Par- 
liament is an imposing pile indeed. In 
grandeur of ensemble and architectural 
beauty it compares favorably with the 
Capitol at Washington. Ottawa is not a 
centre of commercial activity and its cos- 
mopolitanism — well I failed to see anything 
of the sort in the city. The city is mainly 
the political rendez-vous of the Confedera- 
tion and is making the very best of that. 

Owing to the absence of a Diplomatic 
Corps, the social life of the Capital lacks 
the tone of a harmonious whole. Provin- 
cialism seems its dominant feature. There 
appear everywhere distinct silhouettes of 
awkward dignity and of the grotesque, 
of the pompous and the naive. Then as a 

29 



finishing touch to the picture the imported 
aristocracy hides behind heavily curtained 
windows, and the poor devils of native 
plobians stand outside looking at the win- 
dows. With some people the picture pro- 
vokes merriment ; with others it is not so 
ver}^ funny, and again with others it breeds 
humiliation and hatred. Such is life in 
the political metropolis of this British 
Colony. 



30 




■'t 



i^Sri^ 



^•"^'^^w - 



S'^ 







View of Ottawa, 



Chapter II 

New Brunswick. — Picturesque St. John, — Wonderful 

Falls. — Inhabitants. — Pedigrees. — What 

is needed. — Brighter prospects. 

JSJEW BRUNSWICK is a beautiful pro- 
vince, a precious jewel in the crown 
of the Canadian Confederation. All it 
needs to shine in the place it deserves in 
that crown is an army of skilled and 
energetic lapidaries to give it form and 
brilliancy. Which means in a more prac- 
tical language a million immigrants to 
transform the vast area of untilled farm 
and fruit land into miles after miles of 
golden harvests and snowy blossoms. 

St. John is reached after a journey of 
500 miles from Montreal, eastward through 
parts of Quebec, Maine and New Bruns- 
wick. The commercial metropolis of the 
province by the sea is built upon a suc- 
cession of rocky cliffs rising in gentle 
slopes here, and, abruptly there at the 
junction of the magnificently picturesque 
St. John River and the Bay of Fundy^ 

33 



famous the world over for its high tides, 
and as an inexhaustible reservoir of the 
finny tribe. To most of us, especially in 
the middle and western States, St. John 
is little known. A little town made up 
of fishermen, lumbermen and furtraders, 
is our conception of the City of the 
Lo3^alists 

St. John is a great deal more than that. 
It is a city of historic interest and of 
increasing business importance. Tourists 
will find it one of the most delightful 
places in the Dominion during the summer 
months. Wide and tolerably well paved 
streets, some of them literally cut through 
the rocks, run up and down to every point 
of the compass. The business streets are 
framed with substantial, if not imposing 
buildings. The retail and wholesale stores 
found in some of these streets would do 
credit to a much larger city. There are 
also quite a number of private residences 
of architectural beauty, with pretty lawns, 
well trimmed hedges and flower beds. A 
stroll of an hour through the city will 

34 



bring to view a variety of delightful per- 
spectives. 

Some two hundred feet below is the 
magnificent harbor, alive with crafts of 
all descriptions -, then the famous Bay of 
Fundy like an immense shield of polished 
silver, Oourtenay Bay is right there at 
your feet, now a vast expanse of reddish 
sand and then rapidly filling up with the 
roaring tide. Yonder are the rolling hills, 
green with foliage and the rising crops 
and decked with pretty houses. Westward, 
out there up against a sky of immaculate 
blue, a fort frowns at the sea, bringing 
back to your mind's eye, days of struggles 
and of blood between two great nations. 
There are two pretty parks, called squares 
here, perched three blocks apart on the 
highest point in the city. Ideal places 
to enjoy the cool breezes coming from the 
sea. St. John has the whole world beaten 
to a frazzel in the way of Falls. They 
are known as the Reversible Falls. At 
rising tide the Bay of Fundy runs over 
a ragged gorge one hundred feet in width, 

35 



into the St. John River twenty feet below. 
When the tide recedes the St. John River 
pays its respects to the Bay of Fundy, 
by jumping into it from the brows of 
the same gorge. One can go over the Falls 
in a frail canoe at even tide. 

St. John is a sort' of a vest pocket 
edition of Boston, not of modern Boston, 
but old, puritan Boston. It was settled 
by Loyalists, who were Americans from 
New England. These Loyalists turned their 
backs on national independence, liberty, 
progress and prosperity, for the firm and 
only purpose, it is said, of remaining loyal 
to the British Crown. Their sentimental 
bubble cost them inconceivable hardships, 
but they weathered the storm to the end. 
They left their descendants a splendid 
example of self sacrifice, patience and 
energy worth emulating. They left also, 
as a no less important legacy, a carefully 
worded code of religious intolerance which 
has been adhered to ever since. 

The race here and in the greater part 
of the Province is Englo - Kelt, and a 

36 






View of St. John, N. B. 



hardy, concientious race it is. The French 
race is also represented by over 100,000 
Acadians, or about one third of the whole 
population of the Province. 

Intellectual progress of the broad and 
modern type finds little favor with most 
New Brunswickers. They persist in look- 
ing at the world through the wrong end 
of the telescope and shrink in a fright 
before a new idea. Well satisfied with 
what they are, they wrap themselves up 
in their littleness, fall asleep and snore. 
In the meantime the beautiful province 
by the sea finds herself on the very 
brink of a slide leading down, who knows 
where. 

There are in St. John scores of pro- 
gressive, up-to-date men, who strive with 
all their might to pull their province out 
of the hole, but with little avail. News- 
papers, surprisingly good newspapers for 
a town of 42,000 inhabitants, are doing 
all that lies in their power to awake the 
people from their chronic lethargy and 
again it avails but little. New Brunswick 

39 



jogs along apparently satisfied with her 
nearly stationary population of 350,000^ 
when there should be a million at least. 

There are too many people in St. John^ 
as in other cities throughout the older 
provinces who seem to be ashamed to 
work because of their arigtoeratic descent. 
Their pride in pedigree is edifying and 
when looked into found quite interesting. 
Some of the pedigrees reach as far back 
as the Fenian Raid and others not quite 
so far. Yet this a pretty good showing 
for a young country. I met a man, who 
looked down with contempt upon indus- 
trious people, because his grandfather had 
been a Colonel in the militia and was at 
one time the owner of a gun found on 
the battlefield of Waterloo. I also met a 
woman, tall, thin and cadavrous — these 
sort of people are generally thin and ca- 
davrous — who would not associate with 
tradespeople, owing to the fact that Queen 
Victoria had once spoken to the grand- 
mother of her first cousin. It seems that 
in some places, the gentry born on the 

40 



west side of the street take precedence in 
social functions over tlie gentry born on 
the east side. 

While in a certain town in New Bruns- 
wick my landlady agreed to prepare my 
breakfast, which consisted of an egg, a bit 
of toast and coffee, all for the small sum 
of thirty-five cents. All went Avell for a 
few days. One morning, however, the 
husband came to my room with a long 
face, quite long, and a far away look. 

'^ My wife belongs to a very old family,'' 
he began. 

" Indeed," I interrupted, " has the family 
been dead long ? " 

'^ Not yet dead, but I came to tell you that 
my wife can't prepare your breakfast." 

'' She is not ill, I trust." 

'• No, she is well, but it hurts her pride 
very much to cook for money." 

Out with such rot. Such people are 
tolerated I know in old and thickly popu- 
lated European countries, but they are not 
the people wanted in the upbuilding of 
a new country. 

41 



What New Brunswick needs is plenty 
of new blood and a grand shaking up 
all along the line. Immigration will do 
the work needed. Not immigration from 
the slums of English cities, but from 
Germany and the Scandinavian countries. 
These thrifty German, Swede and Norwe- 
gian agriculturists built oar western States 
and Cities, which are now the heart and 
power of a mighty nation. Yes, New 
Brunswick needs immigration, and must 
have it at any cost, now and all the time. 

Now that I have given a statement of 
plain facts I cannot help feeling that this 
magnificent province will come to her own 
at no distant future. St. John, historic 
and picturesque old St. John, with '' I 
will " as motto and a firm grip at the 
helm, can and shall lead the way into the 
broad avenue of progress and prosperity. 






42 



Chapter III 

Nova Scotia. — Land of Evangeline. — Halifax. — The 
people. — Family trees. — Noted men. 

JsfOVA SCOTIA is a big peninsula 
standing out at sea at the extreme 
eastern end of the Dominion. It is a land 
of rocky coasts, of mountains looming up 
north and west against a tempestuous 
horizon ; of hills iimumenible and of 
charming and fertile valleys given to agri- 
culture, especially to the growing of fruits. 
Who has not heard of the Nova Scotia 
apples famous in two continents ? It is 
also a land of great mineral wealth and 
famous fisheries. 

However with the sentimental world, 
the province by the Atlantic is above all, 
the Land of Evangeline. The renowned 
Village of Grand Pre is the Mecca of 
tourists from every civilized country. Here 
they linger and muse over the scenes of 
one of the most atrocious and cowardly 
crimes committed in history. The air 
seems filled with the lamentations and the 

43 



weeping of defenseless men, women and 
children torn from their peaceful homes 
and deported to far away inhospitable 
shores. 

Exile without an end, and without an example in story, 
Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed ; 
Scattered were they , like flakes of snow, when the wind 

[from the northeast 

Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of 

^ [Newfoundland. 

Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city 

[to city. 

From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern 

[savannas, — 

From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands vv'here the 

[Father of Waters 

Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to the 

[ocean. 

Deep in their sands to bury the scattered bones of the 

[mammoth. 

However, a few hundred Acadians re- 
turned and, obedient to biblical admo- 
nition, they have multiplied to one hun- 
dred and sixty thousand in Nova Scotia 
and New Brunswick. And still they speak 
the language of Evangeline. If our great 
Bard could return to the scenes he depicted 
with such a masterful pen, he would sub- 
stitute other verses to the following : 

Only along the shore of the mournful and misty Atlantic 
Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile 
Wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom. 

44 




Basil's blacksmith shop at Grand Pre, N. S. 



Evangeline^s well and Basil's blacksmith 
shop are looked at with the reverence paid 
to famous relics found in ancient churches. 

Halifax is the gate and military outpost 
of the Dominion. It is built on a narrow 
peninsula which comes to a point down 
to the very mouth of the harbor. The 
city is rightly proud of this harbor, which 
can hardly be excelled anywhere for the 
handling of commerce, and as a safe refuge 
from storms and wind for merchant ships 
.and the largest man-of-war afloat. Halifax, 
unlike St. John, is a city of long distances, 
which may account for the scores of vacant 
lots seen on every hand. Its business 
blocks, public buildings and private resi- 
dences outshine anything of the kind in 
the New Brunswick town, but St. John 
shows as much business activity as the 
Capital of Nova Scotia. Some of the public 
drives and parks, notably the parks, are 
worth traveling a long distance to see. 
The Citadel built on the highest point 
in the centre of the town, and the five 
or six forts near the harbor's entrance 

47 



give Halifax a warlike appearance. It is 
in fact a strongly fortified town and is 
garrisoned by native troops. The soldier 
bo3^s seen over there are a fine set of smart 
looking fellows of good fighting stock 
and would fight to a finish, I dare say^ 
if ever called upon to do so. There is also 
a Naval Academy here, but no navy and 
no immediate prospect of one. The Cana- 
dian Navy was wrecked in the same storm 
that wrecked Laurier. 

Most of the people in this city and 
Province are of Keltic origin and Britishers 
from scalp to toenails. They are of fine 
physique and of serious and intelligent 
mien. They are conservative in every- 
thing and slow in most things. Their 
conservatism is an intermingling of good 
sense, intolerance and prejudice. They are 
evidently so very much satisfied with 
themselves that they seem unaware that 
their Province is about to begin a backward 
movement^, owing to the want of immi- 
gration, while emigration is constantly 
draining the population. 

48 




View of Halifax, N. vS. 



Halifax claims the largest number of 
family trees and ancient descents in the 
Maritime Provinces. However some jealous 
people in the sister province of New- 
Brunswick come out with the statement 
that the largest number of old families 
in Halifax and the Province are not yet 
dead, and that some of the dead ones took 
part in the conspiracy that lead to the 
crime at Grand Pre. 

Nova Scotia has given Canada some 
noted men, such as Charles Tupper and 
Robert L. Borden in politics, and Thomas 
C. Haliburton and Robert Christie in lite- 
rature. Plaliburton is perhaps the most 
gifted of Canadian authors of either English 
or French speech. His great work '' The 
Clockmaker or Sayings and Doings of Sam 
Slick of Slick ville " brought him fame 
and honors, wherever the English language 
is spoken. Aside from being a historian 
of note, he is the pioneer of American 
humoristic literature. Yet, I met very few 
people in his native province who knew 
anything of him. Such is fame. 

51 



Nova Scotia has been in- a donrfcart state^ 
for many years and shows little inclination 
to part with her sweet shinibe-r. The big 
Peninsula needs new blood and a violent 
shaking up, superinduced by the eruption 
of new ideas. 

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 

Having failed to pay a visit to the 
diminutive Province of Prince Edward 
Island^ I mast forgo the pleasure of saying 
anything about it, unless it is that the 
population, of the pretty Island shows a 
decrease of over nine thousand during the 
last decade. Not a very commendable, 
showing, that. 






52 



Part Seconi> 



The Province of Quebec 



Chapter I 

Historic facts. — Victory of the conquered. — Fear the 

French I^angnage. — Inhabitants and habitants. — 

Religious extremists. — The good priests. — 

New Year's Night. 

QUEBEC of all the provinces of the 
Canadian Dominion is the most sought 
by tourists, sociologists, economists, histo- 
rians and poets. One finds here a pictur- 
esque corner of Europe : an intermingling 
of the old and the new. The people who 
cibide in this Province belong to a race 
Vv^ho has been foremost amongst the build- 
ers of the modern world. These Canadians 
have done nothing as yet to startle the 
world in intellectual endeavors, and it vv^ill 
probably be a long time before they do. 
However, their uninterrupted struggles of 
a century for their rights of worship and 
of language, and their final triumph assume 
the proportion of an epic. 

When I first looked at Quebec on a 

53 



beautiful July morning, there flashed before 
my mind's eye a vision of three centuries 
of heroic deeds. 

This was indeed " the place and all 
around it as of old," the ragged, towering 
cliffs, the hills and valleys are alive with 
the echoes of war cries and the booming 
of French and English guns fighting for 
supremacy over a continent. It is the 
historic city of Quebec, the cradle of the 
Canadian nation and the coffin of French 
occupation. 

From this cradle I saw French pioneers 
go forth with axes, spades and plows and 
guns, and for the first time the solemn 
solitude of the forests had to give place 
to civilization. Progress was slow and 
every acre cleared cost blood and often 
lives. However, diminutive log hut vil- 
lages, with their church steeples, arose here 
and there on either side of the mighty 
St. Lawrence. Mont Royal was reached 
and the foundations of the future metro- 
polis of Canada were laid. 

The bearers of the standards of France 

54 




View of Oiiehec. 



did not stop here. On they went westward 
to the head of the Great Lakes ; eastward, 
through New York and Pensylvania and 
southward through the valley of the Mis- 
sissippi. The Lily floated over an area 
ten times the size of France. 

The war cloud spreads its ominous sha- 
dows over New France and the English 
Colonies. Montcalm wins his last victories. 
A British army, led by the gallant Wolfe, 
is before Quebec. Finally the proverbial 
tenacity, perseverance and valor of the 
English troops win the day on the Plains 
of Abraham. Wolfe and Montcalm fall 
face to face, and then I see arising over 
their mingled ashes, a shaft commemorative 
of the long and bloody struggle of two 
great nations. 

The flag of England rules supreme over 
the New France of yesterday. It is decreed 
that the conquered shall continue in the 
enjoyment of their religious and social life 
as a reward for their loyalty to the crown. 

However, the conquerors open forthwith 
a war on the language of the new subjects. 

57 



Faithful to the new flag, the French 
fight and cheerfully give their lives for it. i 
They save the colon}^ from American 
invaders. Yet they stubbornly refuse to 
forget their language. Threats, humili- 
ations and the most cunning devices ima- 
ginable avail nothing. They will not give 
up their mother tongue a penny's worth. 

The bloodless war continues between 
conquerors and conquered with more or 
less violence, craftiness and ever-changing 
methods, with the conquerors finally rout- 
ed, arms and baggage clear out of the 
field. Harassed at every step by simingly 
insurmountable difficulties, the sixty thou- 
sand vanquished have increased to over 
two millions and reconquered, from a racial 
and linguistic view point, the greatest 
province in the Dominion. 

Here I stood for a moment bewildered 
before a phenomenon unparalleled in the 
history of the world. 

Is this language question settled inde- 

- finitely in Canada? It would seem so. 

The two races are working in unison in 

58 



upbuilding the country and everything 
appears normal to the casual observer. Yet 
more searching abservations will reveal 
the same determination Avith most Cana- 
dians of English speech to obliterate the 
French language. 

Here is a forcible article that fits the 
case. I found it in the Canadian Courier 
of January 1912, a weekly magazine of 
a deservedly wide circulation in the Do- 
minion. It is from the pen of the Monocle 
Man. The very sort of man much needed 
in English speaking Canada, 

This is the article in part : 

'^ One of the most remarkable thin2:s 
in Canada to me is the fear which some 
of us of English speech seem to have of 
the French language. We are inclined to 
treat it as we do a contasrious disease. 
We want to isolate it — quarantine it- — ■ 
vaccinate against it — make it the modern 
version of a penal offence to be found 
propagating a pernicious knowledge of it. 
Now I do not imagine that it would hurt 
us to know more French or more of anv- 

59 



thing else which makes for culture. Edu- 
cation will not spoil us — bitterly as we 
fight against some of its more obvious 
manifestations. No Englishman of stand- 
ing who comes amongst us, thinks of him- 
self as an educated man unless he can 
speak French. The representatives of the 
Crown invariably delight our fellow-Cana- 
dians of French origin by addressing them 
in their own language ; and they seem 
to be entirely oblivious of the fact that 
thereby they are "shattering Confederation 
to its foundations " and turning this young 
nation aside from a great and glorious 
and homogenous — and homeopathic — 
future. 

Now the French language will not bite. 
Its liquid beauty embahns much of the 
best literature in existence. French drama 
is a copious stream which never runs dry 
— as does the English riverbed. Any 
language is a more or less clumsy and 
loose vehicle for elusive human thought; 
but the French fits much more snugly to 
certain of our more delicate and involved 

60 




Wolfe and :\Iontcalm MoniTtiient 
in the Citv of Quebec. 



conceptions than any other — especially 
than any Northern speech. If I were 
making the laws, I would be far more apt 
to make it compulsory for every Canadian 
school to teach French as well as English 
in practical and workable fashion, than to 
enact that coronation of contented and 
bigotted ignorance whieli discourages the 
teaching of literary French to children 
who too often cannot get that quality at 
home. And if I were going to extend 
State assistance to either language, I would 
not give it to the language which finance 
and commerce and industry and all the 
professions unite to '' boom " on this Con- 
tinent. 

This dread of French is a purely media- 
eval and obsolete survival of a day when 
^' race lines " meant national division. 
There was a time — there are countries 
now — where a struggle for race supremacy 
went on, and it made a very great dif- 
ference which won. That gave us an 
instinctive feeling against the spread of 
any language save our own. But that 

63 



instinct is about ois applicable to modern 
conditions in this country as the instinct 
which leads a horee to jump out of hi.s 
skin at the rustle of a piece of paper by 
the roadside. Once it meant a tiger creep- 
ing in the dry grasses to leap upon his 
back ; but tigers are a bit scarce on our 
city streets these days. The horse shivers 
and starts at nothing. So it is with English 
people who think they see danger in the 
spread of the French Language. They 
are living yet in the days of their far- 
ancestors 

When we move against the French ton- 
gue, we are not on the defensive — we are 
persecutors. Moreover, we are depriving 
life on this Continent of one of its too 
few picturesque features — of an oppor- 
tunity and an incentive to the rest of 
us to learn the language of Moliere, of 
Balzac, of Hugo, of many a great name 
in the world's College of Culture. And,, 
in doing this, we are not ''helping the 
coimtry " or saving our own tongue,, but 
feeding with savage satisfaction a remnant 

64 



of belated barbarism that still soils the 
^' substance of our souls.'' 

The bilingual schools figured as a prom- 
inent issue in a recent election in Ontario, 
This Province objects to the teaching of 
French in connection with English in the 
Public Schools, even in districts where the 
population of French origin is greatly in 
the majority. 

The French of Quebec are wif«er, more 
politic and far-seeing in their treatment 
of the bilingual question. With an over- 
whelming majority in the Province they 
could easily fan into a conflagration the 
spirit of retaliation against the English 
minorit}^ On the contrary, the so-called 
'' priest - ridden and ignorant " French 
Canadians prove most conclusively their 
broadmindedness and evident intellec- 
tual superiority over their detractors, 
by teaching English to English children 
as well as to their own in their public 
schools. 

French Canadians do not study English 
for commercial and political purposes only, 

65 



but as a necessary accomplishment in the 
rounding up of an education of the higher 
sort. English Canadians have nothing to 
lose and much to gain in emulating, with 
regard to French, their fellow-countr3'^men 
of Quebec. 

A large percentage of French Canadians 
in every walk of life in the large cities 
of the Province can speak English fluently. 
The best English I heard during the last 
national election in Canada was from some 
of the French Caiiadian orators who spoke 
French equally as well. This fact alone 
stands out prominently as a powerful factor 
in French Canadian influence in the poli- 
tical life of the Dominion, and constitutes 
an evident intellectual superiority over 
the English element wilfully unfamiliar 
with the French tongue. 

Mostly of Normand and Breton origin 

the inhabitants of Quebec are indeed 

« 

worthy of the blood that is in them. They 
are of flne stature, wiry and quick with 
body and mind. Stubborness, patience, 
integrity, thrift and politeness are their 

66 




House of a habitant of the better class — Unebec. 



salient characteristics. They seem timid 
and suspicious, but their uniform courtesy, 
cheerfulness and hearty hospitality are 
truly refreshing. They are polite without 
being in the least servile, as one will 
find to his discomfort when attempting 
to lord it over them. They have con- 
siderable wit and a great sense of the 
ridiculous. Always courteous to their pre- 
tentious fellow countrymen of English 
descent, they quietly laugh at their pomp- 
osity. 

The habitants in most of the Province 
are intelligent and prosperous. They are 
well housed, well fed, well clad, contented 
and happy. The illiterate habitant is a 
thing of the past. He reads his newspaper 
and is often a subscriber to agricultural 
and other magazines. He talks intelli- 
gently of politics and keeps in touch with 
the conspicuous doings of the world out- 
side of Quebec. He knows more of Ontario 
than the farmers of that Province know 
of Quebec. He no longer hides his econo- 
mies in socks and mattresses but keeps 

69 



an account at the nearest bank. He is 
not a borrower, but a lender, and, like a 
prudent man that he is, invariably prefers 
a safe investment in farmland. His surplus 
cash, however, often takes the form of stocks 
in some safe manufacturing interests. 

I have often met throughout the Pro- 
vince in scores of parishes farmers reputed 
worth from ten to one hundred thousand 
dollars, and living in houses some of which 
would not be out of place in fashionable 
residential streets in hirge cities. The 
better class of Quebec farmers use the latest 
things out in the way of agricultural 
implements. In harvesting time one sees 
in the gilded fields the stalwart farmers 
working the newest machines drawn by 
two or three fine, spirited horses. The 
science of agricultui'e is not generally un- 
derstood here as it should be, but the 
farmer loves his farm and stands by it 
as he does by his family. While cattle 
seen on most farms seem of inferior breed, 
the horses are fine animals indeed and 
much sought by American buyers. 

70 



The indastry and thrift of the habitants 
seem limitless. They are workers and 
hard workers at that. Fathers, mothers, 
sons and daughters, work from the rising 
to the setting of the sun and often late 
into the gloaming. How often I have seen 
after the hard labor of the day families 
of ten, fifteen ^and even twenty stalwart 
children enjoying a much needed rest in 
front of their comfortable homes. The 
grandfather, frequently carrying the weight 
of five and ninety and in some cases of 
a hundred years and more, quietly smokes 
his pipe under trees heavy with bran- 
ches and foliage. The younger ones down 
to the babies are seated about or comfort- 
ably stretched over the grass, v/atching the 
fireflies flashing their lights over the road 
and fences, while the ubiquitous crickets 
sing their monotonous song to the night. 

However, it is on Sunday that the 
habitants appear in their glory, when the 
bells from the distant steeples call them 
to the house of God. Dressed in their 
best on they go with spanking teams 

71 



harnessed to two and four wheel carriages 
of the latest type and all paid for, if you 
please. It is again a pleasure to see groups 
of pretty and modest young girls and lusty 
boys, who never forget to be polite, fro- 
licking in the village streets and countr}^ 
roads on their way to or from mass or 
vespers. Their laughters are as genuine 
and their enjoj-ments as pure as the thrills 
of birds in yonder trees. 

Canadians, English as well as French, 
are religious extremists. The French are 
more catholic than the Pope and the 
English out -Calvin the famous reformer 
himself. This is as it should be. Cynicism 
and unbelief never contributed much to 
the upbuilding of new countries. Puri- 
tanism cleared the forests of New England, 
built churches and schools and prepared 
the ground upon which our social fabric 
is reared, and even helped at the launching 
of our diminutive and ill-equipped ship 
of state, which has now assumed the pro- 
portion of a gigantic Dreadnought manned 
by a crew of ninety million up-to-date 

72 




House of the average habitant - Oucbtc. 



sailors. However, Puritanism is fast dying 
out. There is no place for it in modernism. 
It is at best only a hindrance to intellectual 
progress. The English speaking provinces 
of the Dominion seem to be its main 
abiding place now. 

Roman Catholicism and French Canadian 
priests saved the French race, and made a 
French speaking Province of Quebec. All 
hail to these French Canadian priests ! They 
have done and are still doing their duty 
well. They are more than spiritual adv- 
isers to their parishioners ; they are their 
friends, true, unselfish friends, in joy and 
in sorrow from birth to death. 

The social life of the rural population 
of Quebec is seen at its best in the winter 
months. Then the habitants have hardly 
anything to do but to enjoy themselves. 
Parties and dances and veillees (evening 
calls) are indulged in throughout the season 
and merriment runs high. 

I never shall forget a night spent with 
a well-to-do habitant family some eighty 
miles east of Montreal. It was on New 

75 



Year's eve and the Canadian winter was 
at its best. The frozen earth lay cahnly 
at rest under a solid white covering six 
feet in thickness. The snow sparkled like 
newly broken steel under the sun's rays. 
Every step sent forth a cracking sound 
like that of an electric spark. One's breath 
could be seen a yard off and after a few 
minutes' walk the moustache and beard 
took on a thick coating of frost. The 
sleigh bells tinkled merrily about the 
village streets and along the highways. 
On both sides of the roads tall and stately 
trees shivered in their nakedness, and from 
every chimney stood a column of smoke 
straight and motionless like an obelisk on 
the sandy plains of Egypt. 

The day was fast waning when my driver 
pulled up in front of a house at the angle 
of a cross road. It was a large, two story 
brick house with something like a mansard 
roof Several steps led up to a wide 
veranda. The only door in sight was 
large, built of solid oak, and a shining 
brass knocker hung over the central panel. 

76 




^^^Misi^y: 



Harvesting time — Quebec. 



I had hardly stepped on the veranda when 
the door opened and my host came out to 
meet me. 

'^ Entrez, entrez, mecieu " — Come in, 
come in, sir — he said with a smile and 
a bow, and forthwith he led me to a sleep- 
ing room on the second floor. The room 
was comfortably heated by a large stove 
in the hallway. The floor was covered 
with a carpet of home industry. The 
furniture consisted of a large, comfortable 
looking bed, a small table in the centre 
of the room, a washstand and an armchair. 
On a wall of shining whiteness hung a 
cruciflx and a picture of the Virgin Mary. 
On the table stood a pitcher of water, a 
bottle and a glass. 

'^ E ben a c'theure j'vous laisse, rechauf- 
fez-vous, la bouteille est la " — Now I must 
leave you, warm yourself, the bottle is 
there 

I thanked my host and found the whis- 
key of an excellent brand. 

The moving of tables and chairs and 
the clatter of dishes below, accompanied 

79 



with feminine laughters and songs were 
indicative of the nearness of supper. 

At six o'clock I was invited to come 
down and meet the family and neighbors. 
And what a family to be sure : fourteen 
children and eleven grand children. And 
a finer lot of healthy, cheerful men, women 
and children I have rarely seen. A table 
extending the whole length of a long 
reception room and through the adjacent 
dinino; room was literallv covered with 
eatables, dishes and bottles. The menu 
consisted of a most excellent pea soup^ 
a suckling pig, two turkeys, some chickens, 
mashed potatoes, beet root, pickles, fifteen 
or twenty pies and a cake, as big as a 
large pumpkin. There was also an abun- 
dance of 2:ood wines and spirits. 

" A table, a table, mes enfants '' — Come 
to the table, my children — cried out the 
host. I was given the seat of honor bet- 
ween host and hostess, a vivacious, dear 
little woman of sixty who looked forty. 
There were no servants to annoy us. 
Everybody helped themselves. Among the 

80 



forty-three persons at the table, there was 
not a dull or a sombre face, and as to 
appetite, well it seemed contagious. I ate 
more at that meal than I do in three meals 
at Martin's. The bottles were duly passed 
around and merriment reigned supreme. 
Songs soon followed. 

^' Dis done la, Gaudreau, arrive done 
avec ta chanson " — See here Gaudreau, 
come on with your song — called out a 
young man with a hearty laugh. 

Gaudreau stood up. He was a man of 
middle age. A giant in stature, with the 
chest and arms of a gorilla and the voice 
of a lion. He began in this way : 

'' Dedans sa main a quin tin marie " — 
In her hand she holds a blackbird — 

And everyone repeated in chorus : — 
^^ Dedans sa main a quin tin marie." 

The song lasted a minute or two and 
then the host called out : 

" Alix la, 6coute done, not' mecieu icite 
est in Americain qui parle le Fransah de 
France. Chante done la Marseillaise, Vive 
la France " — Listen here Alix, our gentle- 

81 



man here is an American who speaks the 
French of France. Sing the Marseillaise, 
Long live France. 

Alix, a fine looking chap of twenty-two, 
was on his feet at once. He had a fine 
tenor voice and his rendering of the famous 
hymn was really good. Several other 
songs followed, such as '' Vive la Cana- 
dienne," '' En Roulant ma Boule," '' A la 
claire Fontaine." The program of songs 
seemed to have come to an end, when the 
hostess said : 

" Voyons, p'tite Rose, chante ta jolie 
chanson d'ville pour mecieu " — See here, 
little Rose, sing your pretty city song for 
the gentleman. — 

P'tite Rose was the hostess' younger 
daughter. She was a modest and pretty 
girl of eighteen. Her eyes were large and 
lustrous and her cheeks had the color of 
a ripe peach. She had just left the con- 
vent. She sang a serenade, one of Gounod's 
if my memory serves me well, and sang 
it well with a rich mezzo soprano voice 
of considerable volume. 

82 





Boys and Girls on Sunday in rural Quebec. 



After the big cake had been disposed of, 
the. table was cleared and everything made 
ready for the dance. Eose at the piano and 
Alix with the fiddle furnished the music. 

I will not attempt a description of the 
terpsichorean feats, but they were fast and 
furious. I suggested a waltz to a buxom 
young woman who politely declined on 
the ground that the priest did not permit 
such dances. 

The big clock standing like a sentinel in a 
corner of the parlor showed that midnight 
was near at hand. The music ceased and 
the neighbors made their exit. Everyone 
had slowly disappeared I knew not where. 

The old clock began to count in a sonor- 
ous voice the last hours of "the day. It 
was the knell of the d^dng year. The host 
walked to the center of the room, and 
stood there with a kindly face, erect and 
smiling, unconscious of his three scores 
and fifteen years. Before him on the wall 
hung the pictures of Christ, the Virgin 
Mary, the Pope and of Archbishop Bruch6si 
of Montreal. 

85 



Presently a procession began. Middle 
aged men and women, young men and 
girls and children knelt one by one before 
the venerable old man saying : '' Votre 
benediction, s'il vous plait? " — Your bene- 
diction, if you please — and with hands 
raised above their heads he answered : 
'' Je te benis " — I bless thee. — Then an 
embrace and a kiss and the blessed one 
passed on. The last one was a little girl 
four or Rwe years old. With her little 
knees on the floor and her pretty head 
bowed down, she muttered : 

'^ Bon grand-pere, benis " — Good grand- 
pa, bless me. — The grandfather raised her 
in his arms and kissed her repeatedly. He 
then came to me and, with moist eyes and 
a voice trembling with emotion, said : 

'^ Vous voyez, mecien, comme le bon Dieu 
est ben bon de m'avoir donne tant d'enfants" 
— You see, sir, how very good is the good 
God to have given me so many children. — 

It was early morning when I reached 
the village inn, a very thoughtful and, 
I believe, a better man. 

86 



Chapter II 

French as spoken in Quebec. — lyiteratnre and art. — Race 
and religion in Politics. 

'^E ARE taught to believe in the States 
that the French spoken in Quebec is 
a patois, a corrupt vernacular, a compound 
of French, English, Indian and what 
not. I was led into the same belief by 
newspaper correspondents who don't know 
French from Arabic, and by a book of 
poems by Dr. Drummond, entitled the 
'' Habitants." I carried that book vv^ith 
me in my pilgrimage through Quebec, and 
never found a single Canadian who use 
the dialect the talented English Canadian 
poet so cleverly evolved out of his own 
brain. 

It should be conceded that the French 
of Quebec is not Parisian French. On 
the other hand it must be admitted that 
French is well spoken outside of Paris 
and France. Belgians and Swiss speak 
excellent French. Their intonation is 
slightly different from that of Parisians, 

87 



that is all. French Canadians, however, 
have an intonation peculiar to themselves, 
it is of a singing sort, but by no means 
unpleasant. They give the letter r a lisp- 
ing, musical sound the Parisians would do 
well to imitate. The Canadian vocabulary 
seems restricted, hence the frequent sub- 
stitution of English for French words. 
They also use such words as virer for 
tourner ■ — to turn ; — /i/er for marcher — to 
walk ; — embarquez en voiture for 7nontez en 
voiture — get into the carriage. — They 
have other still more pronounced pecu- 
liarities of speech, such as : a dtheiire for 
maintenaiit — now ; maganer for inalmene^' 
— to ill-treat ; — frette for froid — cold ; — 
drette for droit — straight ; — 7nentrie for 
mensonge — lie ; — fnouiller for pleuvoir — 
to rain. I have also noticed the meaning- 
less use of the adverb la — there — at the 
end of sentences. Obviously this is not 
the language of the cultured classes. The 
language of a Vermont farmer differ consi- 
derably with that of an average Bostonian. 
Educated French Canadians speak very 

88 



nearly as Frenchmen do. The dilBPerence 
consists mainly in intonation and a broader 
sound given to the letter a and the dipth- 
ong Ai when final and followed by s, t, d, 
X. These defects will eventually disappear 
as they should. In fact I frequently met 
Canadians, especially in the cities of Quebec 
and Montreal, who spoke French exactly 
as the French do. 

A Parisian who has lived over twenty- 
five years in Montreal and other parts of 
Quebec, told me that the French language 
is improving wonderfully everywhere in 
the Province, in the rural districts as well 
as in large centers of population. He 
attributed this linguistic awakening to the 
following causes : 

1^^- To the greater number of and much 
better schools. 

2nd. To the increasing number of teach- 
ers from France in institutions of learn- 
ing- 
s'^- To the great increase of students 

from Quebec in France, and the more or 
less prolonged sojourn in that country of 

89 



hundreds of Canadian, tourists who cross 
the sea in increasing numbers annually. 

4th. Tq French theatres in Montreal 
where the sonorous language of France, 
fresh from the mouth of Parisian actors, 
is heard nightly by thousands of natives 
from the metropolis and other cities and 
towns in the Province. 

5^^- To societies of ^' Bon parler Fran- 
gais " organized and being organized in 
large cities and minor towns throughout 
Quebec. 

A conclusive proof that the seventeenth 
century is moving out of Quebec. 

French Canada still holds fast to leading 
strings, a tottering child, in the field of 
literature and art. Youth, the want of 
encouragement and the limited number 
of reacler-s or wealthy art connoisseurs in 
Quebec, are given as a very plausible 
excuse for the paucity of authors and 
artists worthy of the name. Thoughtful 
and thoughtless readers alike seek intel- 
lectual food in books from France ; and 
lovers of art who can indulge their taste 

90 




Praying on the highway — Ouetec. 



patronize artists of the same country, which 
is very much as Americans do. A very 
limited number of French Canadian lit- 
terateurs a,re known outside of Quebec. 
Francois -Xavier Garneau, the historian, 
and Octave Cr^mazie, Louis - Honore Fre- 
chette and Pamphile LeMay, the poets, 
are read and translated abroad. LeMay's 
translation of Evangeline was highly 
prized by the author of that immortal 
poem, as I happen to know from 
Longfellow himself. Two of Frechette's 
poems : '' Les Oiseaux de Neige " and '' Les 
Fleurs Boreales " were crowned by the 
French Academy. This truly great poet 
deserves a monument at the hands of his 
countrymen. Such authors as Benjamin 
Suite, M. de Gasp6 and M. de Boucherviile 
are also a credit to their country and the 
French language. 

In the plastic art, Philippe Hebert and 
M. A. Laliberte deserve the praise bestowed 
upon them by art connoisseurs in and 
outside of their country. 

French Canadian authors have left the 

93 



field of romance to their brothers of 
English descent. Yet it is well known 
that novelists from Ontario and the States 
have often sought their inspiration in the 
old Province. The novels which made 
Gilbert Parker famous in two hemispheres 
deal with French life in Quebec. Canadian 
novelists of English speech are favored 
in having a much larger market for their 
literary wares, near at hand in the English 
speaking provinces and in the United 
States, than French Canadian writers whose 
readers are mostly limited to Quebec. Fur- 
thermore, the number of people given to 
miscellaneous reading in English speaking 
provinces, notably in Ontario, is much 
greater than in Quebec. The reason for 
this is that Quebec is less receptive to new 
ideas than Ontario. It must also be said 
that the Church has a good deal to say 
as to what shall be read or not in the 
French Province. In other words, English 
Canadians, as a whole, are better informed 
than their countrymen of French descent. 
This is esp.ecially true of women who are 

94 



more than men given to reading works 
of fiction. 

Have you read such and such an author ? 
— all standard authors, — I asked of a 
young French Canadian woman of many 
accomplishments. 

^' Pardon, monsieur," she answered with 
a look of surprise, ^' but these books are 
all indexed." 

In English speaking provinces, notabl}^ 
in Ontario, I found scores of young 
women of excellent home training who, 
let it be said to their credit, v/ere fa- 
miliar with the works of the very same 
authors. 

Young men of exceptional literary talent 
are not wanting in Quebec, but they lack 
the initiative, energy and perseverance of 
their brother writers of English speech. 
Their vanity is also quite amusing, and 
their ambition is easily satisfied. However, 
Quebec is no longer a slow going province. 
It is now striding upv/ard in the broad 
highway of intellectual and material pro- 
gress. From this highv/ay there may come 

95 



some day a French Canadian novelist 
worthy of his race. 

I am writing this seated near the ruins 
of a French Chateau. A thick carpet of 
moss and ivy hides most of the pile of 
crumbling stones. A dead three stretches 
its long and naked arms over the walls, 
and skeleton-like seems to grin at death 
below. Is there not in Quebec a young 
and ambitious French Canadian writer, 
gifted with enough imagination to evoke 
from these ruins alone the material needed 
for a good novel ? 

We of the Stars and Stripes have politics 
served to us by the daily press, morning 
and evening, everyday in the year. Politics 
are poured into our ears from breakfast 
to dinner and later well into the night 
by hungry politicians, of every grade and 
hue, foaming at the mouth at the prospect 
of a fat job ahead. Yet in all this aval- 
anche of newspapers, speech-making and 
bar-room talk, one rarely hears of an 
attempt to awake religious controversy 
and race prejudice in this big nation, the 

96 




Ruins of a chateau — Quebec. 



abiding place of every race and creed on 
earth. 

Our neighbors to the north do things 
differently. With them, races, religions 
and languages are pitted against one an- 
other, in their fights for political power. 
Conservatives, Liberals and Nationalists, 
with the Conservatives as formidable lead- 
ers, are well skilled in that form of 
campaigning. Of course, that sort of elec- 
tioneering is mostly done in the dark, 
quietly but effectively done in a house 
to house canvas, when the infamous gospel 
of hatred is preached by adepts at the 
trade. 

I am firm in the belief that reciprocity, 
ostensibly the main issue of the campaign, 
did not by long odds effect the defeat of 
Laurier, in the recent general election in 
Canada. His Catholicism and French des- 
cent, together with the Ne Temere decree 
and Eucharistic Congress, held in Montreal 
in 1910, are mainly responsible for his 
overthrow. I reached this conclusion after 
a careful study of political manoeuvring 

99 



throughout the campaign in Quebec, On- 
tario and the Maritime Provinces. Laurier 
was Protestant in Quebec and too Catholic 
in Ontario. Henri Bourassa contributed 
his share of misrepresentation in Quebec, 
and Orangemen led the campaign of vili- 
fication in engiish speaking provinces. 
Net result : the defeat of Laurier, the 
wonderfully gifted statesman and patriot 
who, during his fifteen years of power, 
lifted Canadians from obscurity and seem- 
ing stagnation to the threshold of great- 
ness. 

The following conversation, among scores 
of the same sort, will serve to illustrate 
the political mentality at that time of a 
large number of Quebec voters. I will 
give the picturesque French with a trans- 
lation. 

^' Ben, mecieu," said a sturdy habitant, 
'' J'su liberal, moe, mais j'vote pas pour 
Laurier cette fois " — Well sir, I am a 
liberal myself but I wont vote for Laurier 
this time. — 

" How is this ? " I inquired, " Laurier is 

100 



your greatest French Canadian. Why go 
back on one of your race ? " 

" Grand Canayen, oui, mais Canayen 
Fransah, j'sais pas. D'pu que le Roi I'a 
fait Prince, il est pu Anglais que Fransah 
et pu protestant que catholique. C'tin 
r'negat, j'vote pas pour lui " — Great Cana- 
dian, yes, but French Canadian I don't 
know. Since he has been made a Prince 
by the King, he is more English than 
French and more Protestant than Catholic. 
He is a renegade, I wont vote for him. — 

I suggested that Laurier had not been 
made a Prince, but simply knighted as 
they say in English. 

'^ Bon, c'est 9a. J'sais pas I'Anglais, mais 
j'sais (\y\' night veut dire nuit. C'est 9a, i 
s'cache dans la nuit, veu pas s'montrer 
aux pauves Canayens. Bon, c'tin prince 
de nuit, nighty comme vous dites. Un 
traite, un Anglais, un protestant. Quin, 
lisez-9a.... — Well, that's it, I don't know 
English, but I know knight means night. 
That's it, he hides in the dark. Don't 
want to show himself to the poor Cana- 

101 



dians. Good, he is a prince of the night 
as you say. A traitor, an Englishman, a 
Protestant. Here read this.... — 

And he took from the pocket of his 
trousers a soiled circular I had seen several 
times before in various parts of the Pro- 
vince. The circular said in part that 
Laurier was a traitor to his race and 
religion since he had been knighted ; that 
he was building a big navy at the enorm- 
ous cost of a hundred millions to be paid 
by French Canadian tax payers ; that 
thousands of able bodied young French 
Canadians vv^ould be taken from the farms 
and sent away to serve as food for cannon. 

In Ontario I was told a thousand times, 
by seemingly intelligent farmers and Avork- 
ingmen, that they had enough of French 
rule and Pope rule. Laurier, they said, 
as the agent of the Pope, wanted to impose 
the Catholic religion and the French lan- 
guage on the English speaking provinces. 

'' We don't want no d... French language 
and no Pope," I often heard them say with 
a frown and a shaking of the fist. 

102 




Sir Wilfrid Laurier. 



I selected for publication the following 
circular amongst others bearing likewise 
upon the subjects of religion, race and 
language, and sent throughout the Domi- 
nion. It will be found interesting reading 
on this side of the line at least. 



Who's going to Rule this Country ? 

SPECIAI, ORDKRS FROM 

His Holiness the Pope. 

Down on your knees, Ontario ! and make obeisance low, 
To me, your sovereign Lord and King, as Canada shall 

[know. 
Too long your recreant Protestants have scorned my holy 

[plans, 
But now your haughty populace must bow to my com- 

[mands. 

Down on your knees, Ontario ! grovel and lick the dust, 
Your sons and daughters fair are mine, by all tha'ts good 

[and just. 
I own your bodies, souls and minds, as well as all your 

[cash, 

And to the lowest depths of hell, your proud ones I will 

[dash. 

Close up your Schools, Ontario ! and I will teach your 

[young. 

Your Knglish cannot be compared with the old Latin 

[tongue. 

You educate them far too well, you make them sharp and 

[wise, 

And what you call ' ' the sins of Rome, ' ' you keep before 

[their eyes. 

105 



Stop ! right away, Ontario, I claim your lands and 

[schools, 

Your teachers, ministers and "guides," are but a pack 

[of fools. 

For years my men have worked with you, and with entire 

[success. 

You never dreamed they WERE my men — they are, tough, 

[none the less. 

Back down, back down, Ontario ! my work is spreading 

[fast. 

Your trusted men are in my pay, though you may look 

[aghast ; 

My system permeates your towns, the French have won 

[the day. 

And French your province must become, no matter what 

[you say. 

Crawl dovv^n, crawl down, Ontario ! your Orangemen are 

[curs'd. 
Your Masons damned, your True Blues doomed, for these 

[have all been nursed 
In bigotry and villainy, but now ueath Heaven's dome. 
Ontario must swear that she will serve the Church of 

[Rome ! 

Hearken to me, all Canada ! Sir Wilfrid is my son ; ■ 
All that a son could do for me, he verily has has 

[done. 

His plans are laid, his men told off — and soon with one , 

[great rush \ 

The enemies of Holy Church, for ever we wtll crush. J 

Down on your knees, proud Canada ! my word must be ' 

[obeyed. 
I hold the keys, I rule the state ! and though I have j 

[delayed 
To exercise my Ro5^al Will — my day has come at 

[last, 
And Canada is mine — for sure, and I will hold her 

[fast. 

i 

106 



Canada's Reply to the Pope of Rome 

Ye Protestants of Canada arise in all your might, 

Your liberties are threatened, grave dangers are in sight. 

The sky is dark, the clouds are black, and soon the 

[thunder's roar 
Will echo loud, while lightenings flash from distant shore 

[to shora — 
The storm blows straight from Rome ! 

The enemy is on the ground, prepared for bitter fight. 
Up then! young Canada, arise prepared to guard the 

[right 
A foreign potentate has sent to rob you of your laws, 
To crush your schools, despoil your Church, and keep you 

[down because 
You will not bow to Rome ! 

Will he succeed ? shall we submit to be slaves of Rome — 
Shall we allow her priests and nuns to regulate the home ? 
To part asunder man and wife, and let the children go ? 
Ten thousand voices cry aloud emphatically " No," 
We will not bow to Rome ! 

We treat with scorn and deep contempt her " Ne Temere " 

[decree. 
And flying the answer in her face — ' ' Young Canada is 

[Free ! 
We stand beneath the Union Jack, ready to face the foe, — 
To chase the tyrant from the land and let the world know, 
Wo do not bow to Rome. 

We scorn to use the cry of race, religion, faith or creed, 
Let each man workship as he will, for Canada has need 
Of truly conscientious men, but not for those who hope 
To raise supreme the yellow flag of any foreign Pope, 
Or make us bow to Rome. 

Our trusted men have faithless been — have played into 

[her hands. 

Bent low the knee, obeyed her call, and granted her 

[demands ; 

107 



Let us now say with one accord ' ' we must have righteous 

[laws, 
We have no use for Rome's decrees, we're done with her 

[because — 
We will not bow to Rome ! 

Stand firm, young Canada ! unfurl your banners to the 

[breeze. 
United we will bring those dark Italians to their knees. 
We're free men born, free we remain, to guard our hearth 

[and home 
But no commands will we receive or listen to from Rome, 
We never bow to Rome ! 

Cheers for King George ! up with the Jack ' the Maple 

[Leaf for ever 

Down with the white and yellow flag, and those who try 

[to sever — 

Canadians from their fealty to Britain's lawful King, 
Loud let our song of triumph swell, and make Heaven's 

[arches ring, 
We do not bow to Rome ! 



Canadians will jog along many decades 
before the realization of their dream of 
national greatness, if persistent in fostering 
race hatred and religious bigotry. Great 
breadth of mind untramelled by prejudices 
of any sort, and intelligent cosmopolit- 
anism are indispensable for the assimila- 
tion of armies of immigrants representing 
various races who find their way to the 
Dominion, or at least to keep those who 
do go. It is a matter of history that of 

108 




Habitants at a political meeting — Quebec. 



the two million immigrants who landed 
in Canada during the last decade, one 
million cannot be accounted for. They 
have disappeared mysteriously like the 
lost tribe. Evidently they have come over 
the line to the States, where more opport- 
unities to better themselves can be found, 
and where language prejudice and religious 
intolerance are seldom seen anywhere from 
New-York to San Francisco. 



Ill 



Part Third 



Future of Canada and the French Race 



Chapter I 

A dream that may not materialize as dreamed. — 
Independence and Annexation. 

'pHE DOMINION OF CANADA is big 
enough to care for six hundred million 
human beings, with plenty of food and 
elbow room to spare. She has inexhaust- 
ible natural resources of everything found 
on ajid in the earth, and in the waters 
about and in the air above the earth. 
Take your choice from forests to farm 
land ; from beasts to birds ; from all 
minerals known to blue clay, and from 
a whale to a minnow. 

Truly, the possibilities of Canada appear 
limitless, but there is often what seems 
an insurmountable distance between actu- 
ality and possibility. All depends on men 
and conditions. The United States built 
up a mighty nation of ninety millions in 
one hundred and thirty six years. Canada 

113 



would unquestionably be satisfied with the 
same result in one hundred and fifty years. 
She begins her upward movement with 
about the same population credited to the 
States in 1776, but here the comparison 
ends. In the new Republic, we find a 
strong-willed and ambitious people begin- 
ing housekeeping on their own account. 
Independence and liberty are theirs and 
the best of prospects loom up on all sides. 
Trappings and tomfoolery incidental to 
monarchical rule were thrown to the wind, 
and life began under entirely new con- 
ditions. The past was killed very dead 
and nothing but the present and the future 
remained. The world knows to-day how 
that present and that future were utilized. 
Intelligent and energetic individualism be- 
gotten of freedom overcame every obstacle, 
and, out of a dormant colony, built up a 
colossal Republic now dominant in the two 
Americas. 

Canada has begun her upward journey 
under many favorable conditions that were 
lacking at the birth of our Republic. Her 

114 



seven millions of people are hardy, intel- 
ligent, energetic and comparatively well 
to do. Her railway system, reaching from 
Ocean to Ocean, is superior to many and 
second to none in the World, and her 
steamships go out to every sea. The 
country is prosperous, and immigrants are 
coming to her shores at the rate of half 
a million a year. 

So far so good, but let it be borne in 
mind that Canada is only a Colony enjoy- 
ing autonomy by the grace of grandmama 
across the sea. While practically inde- 
pendent bhe is not, in the broad sense of 
the term, a free agent. There is a guiding 
hand in the rear that says : right, left, 
about face, forward, march, halt, wait a 
while 'till I see. Implicit obedience to 
these various commands is required and 
given. Now that sort of dependence can 
by no means accelerate the work pro- 
jected. 

Yes, progress must necessarily be slow, 
first owing to the reason just given, and 
then to the lack of harmony between the 

115 



two races in the older provinces. The two 
million French Canadians refuse to be 
bulldozed by dragonnades from the English 
majority. They have no fear of the East, 
but look at the growing West with alarm. 
They believe, and rightly too, that an 
increasing majority hostile to their lan- 
guage and race forshadows their ultimate 
route, as a powerful political factor in the 
Dominion. There is a pulling apart here 
which is not conducive to an agressive 
policy of national growth, the dream of 
far-reaching Canadian statesmen. But no 
doubt should be entertained as to the 
ultimate partial realization of that dream. 
English gold, pluck^ perseverance and won- 
derful commercial genius can transform 
alcali deserts into gardens, and a towering 
mountain of naked rocks into a fertile 
valley. However, it can hardly be the big 
dream dreamed but a very substantial 
dream for all that. 

An increase of about three millions in 
Canada is most probable during the coming 
decade, that is, if fifty per cent of the 

116 



immigrants remain in the country. Cana- 
dian optimism goes farther than that, and 
places the figures at fifteen and even twenty 
millions. Ridiculous of course. But these 
young and ambitious Canadians are af- 
flicted with the swelled head. They really 
and seriously think themselves quite big — 
a civilizing agent of very great weight. 
A moment's reflection would disclose the 
important fact that they have lost their 
reckoning ; that they are in reality next 
to nothing in the scale of conspicuous 
human achievements. 

However, a young and vigorous nation 
of ten millions, with prospects of larger 
growth and greater wealth, has to be rec- 
koned with. But when the ten millions 
have been reached, what then ? Will Canada 
be then at, or is she not already within 
sight of the parting of the way ? 

Diplomats and economists who have 
been watching, with clear brain and vfide 
open eyes, the multitudinous and mys- 
terious manoeuvering over the political 
checker-board of Europe, know in their 

117 



inner souls that the fate of England is now 
hanging npon a thread. One battle lost 
in the North Sea and the practical des- 
truction of her fleet will bring that proud 
and mighty nation to her knees, and the 
subsequent collapse of the Empire. The 
logical sequence of such an event, by no 
means improbable, would be the inde- 
pendence of Canada, the birth of a new 
nation. A nation of say ten million 
people alongside of a colossal Republic \ 
of a hundred millions. A Republic whose 
dream is to see the Stars and Stripes float 
over the Continent of North America. 

With the British Empire buried in the 
North Sea or some other seas, it becomes 
at once evident that the existence of 
Canada as an integral power is wholly at 
the mercy of her big neighbor. AVhile 
not wanting in magnanimity Uncle Sam 
alwa3^s attends to business first and to 
pleasure afterwards. Canada will be given 
opportunities and time to come into the 
fold. Persistance in holding back will do 
no good, and resistance would be madness. 

118 




Right Honorable Robert L,. Borden, 
Premier of Canada. 



The fable of the wolf and the lamb is still 
in print, and will be found interesting 
reading to Canadians. Anexation of Ca- 
nada by the United States, by peaceful 
means or otherwise, seems to me inevitable 
and for the ultimate good of the two 
countries. The Union Jack will meet with 
the fate of the flag of France in North 
America. Furthermore, I expect to see 
the day when the talented statesman, the 
Right Honorable Robert L. Borden, now 
Premier of Canada, will find himself com- 
fortably installed as a cabinet minister in 
Washington. 



4 

'^^ 



121 



Chapter II 

The material side of Quebec. — Roads and railways. 

A GLANCE at the material side of Quebec 
may be found interesting. In the first 
place the old Province with the Territory 
of Ungava annexed is the largest in the 
Dominion and larger than France, Germany 
and the British Isles combined. The last 
census gives a population of over two 
millions. About one million seven hun- 
dred thousand are of French descent and 
speak the French language. The king of 
rivers, the majestic St. Lawrence, winds its 
way through the Province from West to 
East down to the Gulf. The land and 
buildings owned by Quebec farmers are 
estimated at three hundred and sixty 
millions, and the value of field crops for 
1910 foots up to ninety-five millions. The 
six hundred and forty-one farmers' clubs 
in the province have a membership of 
sixty thousand, and twenty-one thousand 
farmers are members of seventy- eight agri- 
cultural societies. The available land for 

123 



settlement comes up to seventy-five million 
acres. There are nearly three thousand 
factories and creameries. 

The timber supply — the recently annexed 
territory is not included here — of soft and 
hard wood is estimated at one hundred 
and sixty-five billion feet ; thirty - five 
billion cords of pinewood and thirty billion 
cords of pulp-wood. The whole is estimated 
to be worth five hundred millions. There 
are over forty-five thousand lumbermen 
employed. Quebec is the chief spruce pro- 
ducing province. In 1911 nineteen pulp 
and paper companies with a total capital- 
ization of forty-one million seven hunckred 
thousand dollars were in operation in 
Quebec. The forest land is estimated at 
one hundred and thirtj^-five million acres 
and brings to the Government a revenue 
of over a million a year. 

There were in 1905 nearly five thousand 
manufacturing establishments with a capi- 
tal of two hundred and fifty-five millions, 
and an output of three hundred and 
nineteen millions. More than forty-seven 

124 



millions were paid to one hundred and 
nineteen thousand employees. The hy- 
draulic power in Quebec — 17,075,939 — 
is double that of all the other provinces 
combined. The value of mining product 
is estimated at nearly six millions, and two 
million ninety-four thousand three hun- 
dred and fifty-seven dollars were paid to 
six thousand three hundred and twenty- 
five workingmen in 1908. There are twelve 
Banks in the Province with a paid up 
capital of forty-seven millions in round 
figures. 

The English language has the best and 
most voluminous vocabulary in stock for 
swearing purposes than any language I 
know. This may be accounted for from 
the fact that English is the language of 
heavy commerce and of the masses, where 
forcible language is most frequently used. 
Now if I ever hear of any man of English 
speech boasting of a car tour over the 
Quebec roads with is mouth shut, I shall 
stamp him forthwith as the champion liar 
of the world. Good roads in Quebec, 

125 



especially in the early Spring, are as rare 
as roses in a desert. 

There is, however, a man at the head 
of affairs in the Province who is the right 
man in the right place, at the right time. 
Sir Lomer Gouin is a progressive man — 
a tenacious man of deeds. He has done 
much for the material and educational 
progress of his Province, and as he most 
probably will continue in power, his good 
work will go right on. 

His Government is up and at it, trying 
to get out of the mud in good earnest. The 
pretty sum of ten millions has recently 
been appropriated for road improvements 
and a fine boulevard is now being built 
through a rich farming country, from 
Montreal to Rouses Point on the northern 
frontier of Nevf-York. 

Railway facilities are also lacking in 
Quebec. The mileage of this province is 
hardly half that of Ontario. This is to 
be deplored, in as much as colonization 
of the fertile land of the North must 
necessarily proceed at a very slow pace 

126 




Sir Lomer Gouin. 



I 






without the iron horse in the fore, and 
colonization is the most urgent need of 
Quebec. 

Montieal like Chicago and Milton's Par- 
adise Lost is a mingling of the sublime 
and the ridiculous„ Viewed from the 
heights of Mont Royal, all about to ever}-- 
point under the rich blue sky, down to 
a far horizon of more sombre tints, the 
majestic beauties of the landscape illum- 
inate the soul with an enthusiasm akin 
to sublimity. Then the eye leaving the 
regions overhead slowly sweeps over a 
seemingly endless forest of houses, high 
and low, of cross covered domes and 
steeples and princely buildings half hid- 
den down below amongst the trees of the 
mountain ; and again, coming to the imme- 
diate vicinity, lingers with reverence over 
magi>ificent cities of the dead. 

The ridiculous and annoying side of the 
picture looms up in the way of outrage- 
ously ill-paved and dirty streets. There 
are quite a number of streets and a few 
squares were imposing buildings are found, 

129 



but a few hours' touring through the city 
discloses the fact that the commercial 
m.etropolis of Canada is in the making. 
The making is, however, going on fast 
and furious. Tearing down and building 
up here, there and everywhere. Much of 
the dust one sees flying about in clouds 
of more or less dimension is the dust of 
labor fanned by the breath of energy and 
activity. When the old gives place to the 
new, there must be a shaking of things. 
Old Montreal is going, melting, sinking 
away out of sight, and new Montreal is 
coming up like a vengeance. This city 
has doubled its population in ten years 
and at its present rate of increase, Boston 
and St. Louis will be left in the rear in 
three years. At the end of the present 
decade, it is not at all improbable that 
the names of the largest cities in North 
America will be given in this order : New 
York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Montreal. 
From five hundred thousand to a million 
in a decade is the dream of the big and 
ambitious city in the Province of Quebec. 

130 



Now, we will all agree that a city increasing 
at the rate of fifty thousand a year must 
necessarily raise considerable dust. Op- 
timism is a great thing, it is the inextin- 
guishable, unerring lighthouse of the hardy 
and ambitious, and the Montrealer is op- 
timistic from head top to heels. 

One of the most interesting features to 
be met with in Montreal is the bilingual 
feature. Of the supposed population of 
five hundred thousand, the French speak- 
ing citizens including the France French, 
the Belgians and the Swiss, claim about 
three hundred and thirty thousand. The 
remaining one hundred and seventy thou- 
sand may be approximately divided into 
one hundred and thirty thousand of En- 
glish speech, such as English, Irish and 
Scotch, and forty thousand Jews, Italians 
and Germans, with a sprinkling of every 
nationalitv under the sun. 

The English element dominate the 
French in high finance and commercial 
influence. They have a much greater 
amount of capital invested in manufactures 

131 



and industries of all sorts. The French, 
however, have been doing pretty well with 
the capital available. The great French 
Canadian financier, Sir Rodolphe Forget, 
is doing much to stimulate his country- 
men to a higher standard of commercial 
endeavors, by inducing capitalists from 
Paris and elsewhere to invest their over- 
flowing surplus gold in Montreal and other 
parts of Canada. 

Political power in Montreal as in the 
whole Province of Quebec is entirely in 
the hands (;f French Canadians, and it is 
of the utmost import that it should remain 
such in the interest of their race and lan- 
guage. Of thirty-one councilmen, twenty- 
eight are French, and the same proportion 
is held in most of the elective oflices in 
the city. The Chiefs of Police and Fire 
Department are of the same race also. 
French Mayors could very well succeed 
themselves indefinitely, had not French 
chivalry willed it otherwise. The high 
position of chief magistrate of the city 
is held alternately by a French, English 

132 



and Irish Canadian. Being an American 
of French and English descent, whoever 
is elected mayor of Montreal must neces- 
sarily be something of a compatriot of 
mine. Yet, I must sav it in all sincerity, 

%J ,1 7 

French Canadian chivalry will cease to 
meet with grateful appreciation, should 
the tables ever be turned with the Britishers 
on top. An English majority would never 
consent to the election of a French Mayor 
in Montreal. And as to the Irish, history 
shows no record of an Irishman having 
died of gratitude. 

The common class of immigrants take 
more readily to English than French in 
Montreal. The Jews for instance are En- 
glish in speech and sympathy, although 
most of them speak passably good French. 
It is, however, my candid opinion that 
French Canadians will hold more than 
their own in Montreal as well as in Quebec. 
It Avill be many years, if ever, before im- 
migration can be diverted from the West 
to the East. Meanwhile the Eastern En- 
glish speaking Provinces shall have to be 

135 



contented with a natural increase, which 
will in all probability^ continue to fall far 
below that of Quebec. 



136 



Chapter III 

Important statistics. — A Republic and other dreams.— 
The Tricolor and the Church. 

pRENCH CANADIANS are very proud 
of their large families and of the 
longevity of their members. Families of 
twenty children are not rare in Quebec, 
and an average of eight children to every 
family in the Province would be a con- 
servative estimate. Here are some statistics 
I gathered from French Canadian parents in 
some of the rural districts and three cities of 
Quebec, and from farmers and workingmen 
of Ontario and the Maritime Provinces. 
In rural Quebec I found that five hundred 
and fifty-three children had been born in 
fifty families. Of this number one hun- 
dred and seventeen died, ten had gone to 
the States, five studied for the priesthood, 
four were nuns and twenty were engaged 
in business or followed some professions. 
The remaining three hundred and ninety- 
seven worked on the farms. The number 
of births in the same number of families 

137 



in the cities of Quebec, Trois-Rivieres and 
Montreal averaged five hundred and two. 

The. number of children born in fifty 
families of farmers in Ontario came up to 
two hundred and fifty-nine. There were 
forty - seven deaths, and eighty - two had 
gone to the cities and the West, leaving 
one hundred and thirty on the farms. 
I found that two hundred and sixty-three 
children had been born in fifty families 
of the well to do working class in Toronto. 
The Maritime Provinces made about the 
same showing as Ontario. I am speaking 
here of families of English speech only. 
There were five hundred and sixty-one 
children born in fift}^ families of French 
speech or Acadians in New Brunswick — 
a better showing than Quebec. I met 
fifteen centenarians in Quebec and Ontario. 
Amongst these was the son of a soldier 
of Waterloo. He is now 103 years old, 
straight as an arrow, hale and hearty. His 
name is Athanase Eocray and his abiding 
place, Berthierville, Quebec. 

Now it will be seen by the foregoing 

138 




Sir Rodolphe Forget. 



I 



that the French Canadian Birth rate ex- 
ceeds by about one hundred per cent that 
of Ontario and the Maritime Provinces. 
Should French Canadian mothers keep up 
their enviable reputation for three score 
years, and the English speaking provinces 
of the East fail to make a better showing 
in the future than in the past, the result 
is easily foreseen. An Eastern French 
Canada against a Western English Canada. 
However, quite a number of ifs are to be 
met with in connection with such a hypo- 
thesis. Aside from a high birth rate other 
things are required to overcome English 
stubborness, whether from a majority or a 
minority. French Canadians must meet 
stubbornness with stubbornness, arrogance 
with arrogance, aggression with aggression, 
boldness with boldness and stupidity with 
cleverness. Dissensions and petty jealousies 
manifestly rampant in the Province, should 
cease forever and give place to a bold 
and patriotic unit. No time should be 
spent in tickering over nothing. The 
most urgent need is a concentration of 

141 



strength in the Province through coloniza- 
tion, and again colonization. The scattering 
of the . race in the West is equivalent to 
emigration to the States. Quebec is the 
place and only place for the expansion 
of the race and a corresponding increase 
of strength and power. A source of weak- 
ness to Quebec is a lack of technical 
education. Most of the young men I met | 
in the Province engaged in enginering 
works, were of English speech and quite 
a number of them came from Ontario. 
Quebec young men have a weakness for 
liberal professions. There is here an idle, 
poverty-stricken army of lawyers, doctors, 
notaries, and the like ; and again an other 
army of seekers of shadows, sentimental 
loafers and penurious sons of those ever- 
lasting old families of yesterday. Mean- 
while seventy-five million acres of farm 
land are waiting for the plow. However, 
all this rubbish will eventually be utilized 
or swept away, and Quebec will continue 
her march upward. 

I frequently heard it stated that French 

142 



Canadians aim at the establishment of a 
Republic on the banks of the St. Lawrence. 
It is said to be the dream of the talented 
Bourassa, head of the Nationalists. Only 
a dream of course. Yet, I must say that 
a French Republic in Quebec seems to 
me as probable as the existence of Canada 
as an independent nation The morsel is 
too tempting for Uncle Sam to let go, and 
then it would be so easy to swallow it 
and digest it in due time. 

French Canadians, all Canadians for 
that matter, have an exaggerated opinion 
of England as a military power. They 
always think of the England of Trafalgar 
and Waterloo. They seem to have no 
recollection of the South African war, when 
the whole Empire had to be summoned 
to her help, to overcome her repeated de- 
feats at the hands of twenty thousand 
farmers. 

The prestige of England has fallen quite 
low since that war, and she is not now 
resting on a bed of roses. She is facing 
economic conditions at home such as 

143 



existed in France before the Revolution, 
and the nightmare of German invasion 
leaves her no peace for one good, quiet 
sleep. She has to lean on France for safety, 
while throwing out in the neighboring 
seas, barricades of dreadnoughts. But all 
her dreadnoughts without a Nelson to 
command them will probably not make 
the good showing expected against the 
combined fleets of Germany, Austria and 
Italy. The fate of the British Empire 
hangs on a thread, as I said before, and, as 
a logical sequence, the fate of the Dominion 
of Canada hangs on a hair held by Uncle 
Sam. 

While I met a great many well educated 
men in Quebec who favored annexation, 
most French Canadians however are op- 
posed to it. They take the ground that 
such a political union spells the ultimate 
extinction of the French language in the 
Province. They seem to overlook the fact 
that the solid and rapidly growing English 
West with the English majority East are 
working to that very end, and with uncon- 

144 




Typical French Canadian family in rural Quebec. 



I 



cealed aggressiveness, too. The simple fact 
of the matter is that the perpetuity of the 
French idiom in the old Province rests 
exclusively with the people themselves. 
The American people, and much less 
American statesmen, would never oppose, 
but most likely encourage the expansion 
of the French tongue in Quebec. Our 
Republic would welcome and appreciate 
the civilizing influences of a little France 
in her midst. The French language is 
left to go on its own way and prosper in 
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, Maine, Vermont and Illinois. A French 
Canadian is Governor of Rhode Island, 
and other more or less important offices, 
such as that of Mayor, District Attorney, 
Councilman, etc., are held by man of the 
same race throughout New England. In 
quite a number of minor towns in the 
Eastern States, French Canadians are the 
controling element. 

The one million French Canadians in 
the States stand as a unit for annexation. 
The tremendous industrial and commercial 

147 



activity ensuing from the influx of un- 
limited American capital and modernism, 
would . bring a great percentage of these 
Canadians back to their native Province. 
There would then be no lack of opport- 
unities to lift up ambitious young men, 
from obscurity and inertia to a life of 
activity with wealth and fame as a fre- 
quent sequel. 

Now, to my way of thinking, a French 
Republic in Quebec is an impossibility : 
an independent Canada would meet with 
an early death, and the colony with the 
Empire gone ceases to have a raison cfetre, 
Canada is then left with only one course 
to fellow, namely, to bow to the inevitable, 
and extend a cheerful grasp to the might- 
iest of Republics. 

Now let me assume the gift of prophecy. 
Whatever may be in store for Canada, the 
unique and picturesque people of Quebec 
and their musical idiom as well, shall keep 
right on expanding in and beyond the old 
Province. 

Here is an article, descriptive of a 

148 



sadly magnificent spectacle I witnessed in 
Montreal in June 1911, and which left a 
deep impression upon my mind. 

The clipping was handed to me by a 
traveling companion, a traveled and well 
bred Englishman — such Englishmen are 
the most delightful companions in the 
world — with the following request : 
" Please read this. It is one of the most 
delightful bits of descriptive work I have 
read for some time.'' It is certainly a 
little chef'iV oeuvre, and I enjoyed reading 
it the more, in as much as I had been 
an eye witness of the scenes so graphically 
depicted by the author, Albert Lozeau. 

The burning church, now being rebuilt, 
and the victorious French Tricolor seemed 
to symbolize the conquest, the struggles 
and the final triumph of the French race, 
language and religion in Quebec. 

I publish the original French for the 
benefit of students of that language : — 

" Je sais un drapeau frangais qui s'est 
bien conduit. 

Hisse depuis la St-Jean-Baptiste sur le 

149 



fronton de mon gglise paroissiale, il a brav6 
sans une brulure les flammes d'un mons- 
trueux brasier. 

Le temple flambait. De la base au faite^ 
ce n'etait que tourbillons d'6tincelles et 
colonnes de feu. La coupole croulait par 
morceaux et la toiture crevait ; par les 
orifices se ruait en sifflant un affreux vent 
rouge. D'enormes pieces d'acier, tordues 
comme des allumettes calcinees, s'effon- 
draient en un fracas horrible. Des plaques 
de cuivre d'une phosphorescence verdatre, 
a demi fondues, volaient pareilles a des 
bardeaux lumineux. Sous le ciel rose, la 
fumee large eployait un voile opaque ou 
passaient des tisons incandescents. Tout 
cr^pitait epouvantablement. Les pompes 
a vapeur retentissaient de vibrations et de 
sifflements lugubres, et I'edifice se consu- 
mait aux exclamations sourdes de la foule. 
De temps en temps, d'immenses langues 
cramoisies serpentaient par les ouvertures 
et lechaient les murs de pierre. Le brasier 
6clairait la nuit d'une lueur infernale. 

La foudre toute seule avait fait cela. 

150 




Athanase Rocray, 103 years old, 
Berthisrville, Que. 



Un eclair rapide avait touche le toit, et 
Teglise s''an6antissait. 

Entre deux clochetons lateraux, fr616 
par la poussiere ardente, au-dessus de la 
fournaise dont la chaleur empourprait au 
loin les visages, le drapeau fran9ais battait 
au vent. 

De r^norme cuve en ebullition montaient 
des vagues pourpres et jaunes, et des lances 
de flammes aigues. Le drapeau frangais 
battait au vent ! 

Sur la frenesie du feu, sur le sinistre 
incendie que rien n'apaisait, sur la rage de 
Telement feroce, le drapeau francais battait 
au vent ! 

Dans le firmament ebloui, ou fuyaient 
des milliers de petites etoiles, dans les cris 
d'angoisses et les appels rauques, en pleine 
catastrophe, seul dans le danger, chiffon 
tricolore intrepide, le drapeau frangais bat- 
tait au vent. 

Aujourd'hui, il n'y a plus que des mines 
oil se posent les oiseaux. Dans les cloche- 
tons, les cloches sont mortes. Des frag- 
ments de structure d6form6e dessinent leurs 

153 



silhouettes desolantes. Un pilier solitaire 
se dresse, intact^ au milieu de renceinte. 
Ou 6tait le d6me s'arrondit la coupole 
des cieux. Le silence habite le temple 
ouvert ou les orgues nouvelles avaient hier 
chant6. . . . 

Mais, comme une esperance dominant la 
tristesse, seul entre les clochetons lateraux, 
joyeux dans la brise qui le rend sonore, 
sans une brMure a ses plis triomphants, le 
drapeau fran§ais flotte encore/' 



(tkanslation) 

I know a French flag which has behaved 
gloriously. 

Raised on St. John the Baptist's Day 
on the pediment of my parish church, it 
stood unscorched by the flames of a mon- 
strous conflagration. 

The whole sacred edifice wos a prey to 
the flames. From its highest pinnacle to 
its very foundations, nothing could be 
seen but columns of fire and a whirling 
of sparks. The coupola was crumbling 

154 




French Canadian guide in Northern Quebec. 



bit by bit, and the roof, eaten by the 
fire, burst open everywhere and through 
the orifices thus made, the red flames 
broke with a frightful, whistling sound. 
Big blocks of steel, blackened and twisted 
like burnt matches, crashed through the 
building with a horrible din. Plates of 
copper, emetting a green phosphorescent 
light, half melted, whirled through the 
air like luminous shingles. Beneath the 
rose-tinted sky, there hung a heavy, opaque 
cloud of smoke through which burning 
firebrands rushed to and fro. The whole 
building crackled ominously. The steam 
pumps vibrated and hissed lugubriously, 
and the crowd uttered muffled cries and 
exclamations as they saw the edifice being 
slowly consumed. Now and then immense 
crimson tongues, serpent - shaped, burst 
through the openings and licked the granite 
walls. The seething furnace lit up the 
blackness of the night with an infernal 
light. 

A single stroke of lightning had caused 
all this ruin. A rapid flash had touched 

157 



the roof and the church was being slowly 
destroyed. 

Between two lateral bell-turrets, closel}^ 
beset by the burning dust, above the fiery 
furnace whose heat flushed the faces of 
distant beholders, the French flag floated 
in the wind. 

From the enormous vat in ebulition 
ascended purple and yellow waves and 
sharp tongues of flames. The French flag 
floated in the wind ! 

Over the frenzy of the fire, over the 
sinister conflagration which nothing could 
appease, over the raging and ferocious 

element, the French flag floated in the 
wind. 

In the blue azure of the skies, dotted 
with myriads of little stars, amid cries of 
anguish and hoarse shouts, at the very 
heart of the catastrophe, isolated and con- 
temptuous of danger, intrepid tricolored 
cloth, the French flag floated in the wind. 

Today, nothing is left but bird haunted 
ruins. In their towers the bells are bushed 
for ever. Fragments of the building, 

158 



lonely and desolate, show their formless 
outlines against the sky. A solitary pillar, 
intact, stands within the enclosure. Where 
the dome of the church onces tood, no- 
thing is seen but the blue expanse of 
heaven — silence broads over the ruined 
temple where yesterday the organ rang 
with songs of praise and adoration. 

But like a note of hope dominating this 
symphony of sadness, standing alone bet- 
ween the lateral bell-turrets, sonorous in 
the joyous breeze, its triumphant folds 
unscorched, the French flag is still float- 
ing." 



The talented writer might have, seen but 
a short distance from the burning temple, 
another flag which floats at this writing 
over 400,000,000 human beings scattered 
in every part of the Globe, over an area 
of more than eleven million square miles. 
It was the Union Jack flying from an 
unpretentious staff. The grand old flag 
now in full swing, angril}^ shaking its 

159 



colors at the conflagration, and then slowly 
falling and rising in seeming sympathy 
with the Tricolor, its ancient enemy, but 
now its best friend and ally. 

Now, I will conclude with a bow, a 
most respectful bow, to Eastern Canadian 
mothers — the representatives of all that 
is sane, wholesome and enobling in do- 
mestic life. 



160 



^C^ 




Comparative numerical standing of the French and 
Lritish races in Eastern Canada. 



ERRORS 



page; 


1.INE 


RKAD 


FOR 


II 


9 


Spring 


spring 


17 


12 


English 


english 


25 


10 


this 


these 


25 


19 


pursuit 


poursuit 


40 


12 


this is a 


this a 


58 


14 


seemingly 


simingly 


81 


4 


eat 


do 


88 


23 


differs 


differ 


89 


8 


speak 


spoke 


148 


16 


fallow 


fellow 



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